


Three's Company

by tjmystic



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Dueling Grandpas, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-25
Updated: 2013-03-25
Packaged: 2017-12-06 10:56:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/734886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tjmystic/pseuds/tjmystic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gold and David vie for alone time with their grandson</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three's Company

Three’s Company  
Rating: PG

Author’s Note: The long-awaited dueling grandpas ficlet! Hope you enjoy, midstorm :D

 

David marched frantically down the street, his old sword swinging against his outer thigh. When he wasn’t thinking about it, Storybrooke seemed like such a small town. The moment things went all to hell, on the other hand…

And it had been a normal morning, too. That was the part that got to him the most. Emma had taken Snow out on a mother-daughter date to detox from all the crap that had been happening lately, Neal had escorted Tamara on a date to Granny’s, and he and Henry were given full reign of the apartment for the first time since his wife and daughter returned. Not that he wasn’t happy about that, of course - he’d felt like his soul was missing without Snow by his side, and, besides that, his daughter was a much better Sheriff than he could ever dream of being. Still, that didn’t mean he didn’t miss having alone-time with his newly acquired grandson. 

Worried as he was, David couldn’t help but smile at the thought. Henry had really improved in his “prince-ing” lessons, as the two jokingly called them. His horse was progressing into a fine steed, his manners were starting to improve, and, even more importantly, his fencing was superb.

Needless to say, it came as a total shock for both of them when Henry vanished in a cloud of purple smoke mid-parry. 

At first, David had thought it was Regina. She was still out and about, after all, and, as far as he knew, still longing for her adopted son’s love. It terrified him more than he thought was possible to imagine that she’d finally caught him and made him her slave.

Thankfully, his fears didn’t hold any weight - Regina had apparently been in her parents’ tomb all day and, according to the Blue Fairy, hadn’t performed any magic for the entire duration of her mourning. 

So, unless, something even fishier than usual was going on in Storybrooke, that narrowed the culprits down to just one option.

“GOLD!” he roared, barging into the man’s shop with his sword held aloft. ”I know you’re in here!”

“All the subtlety of an alehouse on fire,” the man in question sneered. ”But then, I’d expect nothing less from our dearest Prince.” 

David whipped around to see him poised in front of the curtain that led to his backroom. A growl that even Red would be proud of passed his lips.

“Where’s Henry?”

An evil little smirk turned up half of the man’s weathered face. ”Oh, you mean my grandson?”

“ _My_ grandson, Gold!”

“Yes, well, you see, most people have two grandfathers. Sorry if that’s too hard a concept for you to understand, dearie.”

David strode forward and pushed the sorcerer into the wall by his shoulder. ”Where. Is. Henry?”

“Grampa, Grampa, look!” a little voice shouted. 

Before David could begin to register what was going on, his grandson barreled into the room, decked out in a floor-length sorcerer’s cloak. 

“Grampa, I - oh, hey, Gramps!” Henry panted, rushing at David and quickly hugging him around the waist. ”Grampa was just teaching me how to make fire with magic!”

Unable to think of any other response, David lifted his head - and his eyebrow - at the little imp. ”Fire, Gold?”

He shrugged. ”He’s a responsible lad. Responsible enough to wave bits of metal in people’s faces, anyway.” 

Gold smacked David’s sword - which, he realized belatedly, was still pointed in his face - out of the way. David growled again but decided not to comment on it.

“Henry, you can finish your magic lesson later,” David groused. ”Your mom will kill me if she finds out that I lost you again.”

“But Gramps, I was -“

“Henry,” Gold interrupted, even though his eyes were still glued on David, “why don’t you go in the back and practice some more? Let us sort things out, hmm?”

Henry glanced between his two grandfathers, but eventually shrugged and skipped back into the shop. Gold ruffled his hair on the way out, and, much to David’s surprise, genuinely smiled when Henry hugged him in response. 

“Alright, what are you playing at?” David muttered, hoping that Henry wouldn’t overhear behind the curtain (though, he wouldn’t put it past the boy to somehow know what was being said anyway). 

Gold lifted a hand to his cheek in mock offense, acting for all the world as if David had slapped him. ”Playing at? Why, whatever do you mean?”

“Cut the crap, Gold, I know you’re up to something. Now spill, or I’m taking Henry and you won’t see him again unless Emma and your son give you explicit permission.” 

He expected for the man to threaten him, to needle and wheedle his way into the beginnings of a deal. What he didn’t expect was for his face to fall and his eyes fill with terror.

“Alright, alright. No need to be so hasty. I just… I missed this, with my boy. He… I, let him go when he was just fourteen. Henry’s just turned eleven. It’s like getting a second chance. You and your wife would know all about those.”

He wanted to turn him down, tell him that he didn’t deserve another chance when he’d so obviously proven himself to be a terrible father the first time around. But it was rare, so very rare, to see the Dark One asking him for help that he couldn’t help but give a little. 

They were family, after all. Screwed up as that family may be, that still meant they had to watch each others’ backs.

“Well, next weekend, I’m taking him horseback riding. Got it, Gold?”

The sincere expression on the older man’s face melted almost instantly into a smirk. ”Of course. The boy will need something tame to hold him over until he gets to ride the hippogriff I procured for him.”

David sputtered like a boiled-over kettle. ”Hippo - what?”

“Hippogriff. It’s a horse with the head of a -“

“I know what it is, Gold,” he growled. ”But how did you get one here?!”

Gold was about to answer, his mouth already forming into a doubtlessly scathing retort, when a loud explosion stopped them both in their tracks. David didn’t think a man with a cane could run so fast, but Gold outpaced him by a solid yard in his rush to the backroom.

“Henry!?” they both shouted. 

Thankfully, nothing seemed to be broken or burnt, but there was a suspicious simmer of smoke in the center of one of the work tables. A dull thump sounded from the floor, and David raced around it to find Henry on his back, a star-covered sorcerer’s hat plopped low over his eyes.

“Henry, are you alright?” he asked, lifting the boy up as Gold brushed the dirt off his back.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” he panted. ”Just remind me to never open the box labeled ‘dragonfire’ again.”

David glared at Gold as Henry hopped back over to the potions kit, and was more than a little impressed to see that he’d buried his face in his hands. 

“Your daughter’s going to kill me,” he mumbled into his palms. 

David laughed and clapped the man on the back. ”Not if we don’t tell her.”

Gold shifted a bit, eyeing David curiously through the crease of his fingers. “Not a word to Emma?”

“And I wont’ say anything to your son, either.”

They eyed each other for a brief moment before nodding tersely and shaking on it. In the face of their children’s wrath, they could most certainly agree to be civil in-laws.


End file.
